Ashton Triple Bill at the Royal Opera House

Last week I went to see three one-act ballets by Frederick Ashton danced by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House. My last visit was about 6 months ago to see Steven McRae dance Romeo in 'Romeo & Juliet', his first return to the stage after snapping his Achilles tendon over two years ago. 

The first ballet was 'Scenes de Ballet', a piece I've never seen before. It didn't grab me at all although I liked the music by Stravinsky. The dancing seemed rather formulaic and I wasn't always sure what I was actually seeing. At one point I remember being distracted by the lads' tunics, thinking they would make great tee shirts and the Royal Opera House should sell them in its shop. I should be thinking about the ballet not tee shirts.

The second was 'A Month in the Country' with music by Chopin, a ballet I've seen before and I could sink into the comfort and story of it. A rich family living in the countryside in their grand house, the bored mother flirting with a friend, the father mainly absent, two children and servants when a new tutor for the boy turns up. Obviously, the mother and tutor fall in love but the daughter has set her sights on him and she denounces them to the father. It ends sadly, but the love is real. Natalia Osipova was excellent as the mother, flirtatious and sad by turns, yearning for more than her life has given her. William Bracewell danced the tutor who can't bear to hurt his love and leaves quietly. 

The final ballet was 'Rhapsody' with music by  Rachmaninoff and it was my favourite. I've not seen it before but the lead was danced by Steven McRae so we were in safe hands (or feet). It was a perfect match of movement to music with Steven leaping and jumping, running round the stage leading the other dancers then vanishing into the wings to let Anna Rose O'Sullivan do her dances. This is a great role for a male dancer to spotlight their skills and Steven took full advantage of it. And even better, he looked like he was enjoying it. He was a joy to watch and I'd love to see him dance the part again. 

I don't have any more tickets to see the Royal Ballet in the immediate future - my next dance is flamenco - but that day will come again. They're too good to miss for long.

'Romeo and Juliet' at the Royal Opera House

Last week I went to see 'Romeo and Juliet' at the Royal Opera House, the ballet that made me fall in love with the art form and, luckily, the dancer who played Romeo in that production six years ago was dancing again. Steven McRae danced Romeo in 2015 and I was in the audience when he snapped an Achilles tendon in 2019 so I had to be there to see his triumphant return to the stage last week, once again dancing Romeo, with Sarah Lamb as Juliet. What a privilege to see this joyous ballet with such great and graceful dancers as my re-introduction to the main stage of the Royal Opera House. The Royal Ballet dance Kenneth MacMillan's version of this eternal story - I've also seen John Cranko's version in Boston and, more recently, Matthew Bourne's re-imagining of the tale, but I prefer the Royal Ballet. Prokofiev was having a good month when he wrote the score for this ballet. 

We all know the story behind the work, the rivalry between the two houses of Capulet and Montague in Verona, how Romeo falls for Juliet and pursues her to marry secretly while she is supposed to marry another nobleman. She feigns suicide to avoid the marriage but Romeo believes she is dead so commits suicide himself and when she finds him dead she follows him into death. Whenever we get to the marriage scene I can't help but wish they don't marry since marriage signs their death warrants, but they always do. Maybe one day the friar will refuse to marry them...

Needless to say, I loved it. It was great to see the excitement of the sword-fencing scenes again, see the Happy Strumpets strut their stuff and see Romeo and his mates enjoying themselves before tragedy strikes. There were a few tense moments when Steven McRae took off to fly across the stage but he was on top form and seemed to revel in performing again. It's what he does, after all. He received huge cheers when he strode on stage at the start of the performance and an even louder ovation at the end, with Sarah Lamb pushing him forward for bows at the end and to accept the cheers and love from the audience. The bows at the end are usually led by the ballerina but that night it was all for Steven, and rightly so. 

And I still love that ballet.

'Manon' at the Royal Opera House

The Royal Ballet's 'Manon' is a staple in their repertoire and is a sad tale of love and loss. There are energetic ensemble dances and gentle, poignant duets between our lovers, pain and despair, rape and murder, poverty and riches, it's all in there. It's a grand tale spanning class and continents. We were there to see the return of Steven McRae in his first show since recovering from an injury that's kept him off the stage for most of the year.

We meet young Manon when she arrives at a coach station outside Paris, fresh from a  convent and naive. Her brother spots an opportunity to make some money since a rich gentleman is instantly taken with her and, while they discuss prices, Manon meets the student Des Grieux and they fall in love. They run off to Paris but are tracked down by Manon's brother and the rich man and she is seduced by the jewels and furs he offers and she goes off with him. They meet up again later at a party and Manon and Des Grieux agree to run off again together but they're caught again and her brother is shot by the rich man and she's arrested as a prostitute. She's deported to a penal colony in New Orleans with other women in the same position and there, yes, you guessed it, the commander takes a shine to her, arrests her and has her delivered to his office to rape her. Des Grieux has traveled with her, kills the commander and they escape into the everglades where Manon dies and leave his alone for the last time. The message here is not to get seduced by wealth because it'll end badly.

This is the Royal Ballet so it's expected that the dancing will be excellent and it was. I particularly liked the ensemble dances which were really quite exceptional with great synchronisation, such as the dance of the strumpets at the party where they show off their wares - themselves - to the guests and then later the women coming off the ship in New Orleans, distressed and ashamed, dressed in rags and with their hair cut off. That was a particularly moving dance with the women almost fainting, unsure and confused - a beautiful bit of choreography and performance.

Akane Takada was a good, waif-like  Manon and Steven McRae danced Des Grieux with all the skill and vigour we've come to expect from a  dancer at the top of his game. It was great to see him bring his skills in dance and in characterisation to the stage of the Royal opera House again.

All was going well until the start of the last scene in Act Two when Des Grieux comes on alone to dance and, after a couple of leaps, something obviously was wrong as Steven stood still on one leg and then hopped off the stage to protect his injured leg. The curtains closed and the show stopped as we were told there was a problem and then told that Steven was injured and the production would continue with Reece Clarke dancing his role. That must've been a terrible moment for Steven, back to dancing only to face another injury. It must've been difficult for Akane as well, used to dancing with Steven and now having someone much taller stepping in to finish the show. Well done to Reece for stepping in.

It turned out the Steven snapped an Achilles tendon, has had an operation and now faces a long recovery again. As is typical of him, he's already posted photos of himself exercising and determined to recover and get back on stage. When you're ready to get back on that grand stage we'll be there to see you again.

'Romeo and Juliet' at the Royal Opera House

Kenneth MacMillan's 'Romeo and Juliet' is a staple in the programme of the Royal Ballet and it's rather special to me. I saw Steven McRae and Iana Selenko dance the title roles three years ago and that production made me finally 'get' ballet and fall in love with it. O yes, it's that personal to me. I saw the John Cranko version of 'Romeo and Juliet', choreographed a few years before MacMillan's, when I was in Boston last year danced by the Boston Ballet at the Boston Opera House and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I prefer the MacMillan version.

The ballet is back in the programme for this years' season at the Royal Opera House so, naturally, I bought tickets. Steven McRae was due to dance the title role again but sadly injured his knee so our lovers were Akane Takada as Juliet and Ryoichi Hirano as Romeo. I've seen Akane dance in 'Manon', 'Mayerling' and as the swan in last summer's glorious version of 'Swan Lake' and seen Ryiochi dance in 'Nutcracker' and in 'Frankenstein'. They both have excellent track records. There aren't any production photos of them dancing the current roles, unfortunately.

We all know the story. Romeo Montague is a lad about town, stirring up trouble with the rival house of Capulet and hanging out with the Happy Strumpets in the marketplace, and then, after blagging their way into a Capulet masked ball to show off Juliet they see each other and fall in love. That starts the tragedy - how can the young lovers from rival houses possibly marry? They marry in secret and share one night of love before Romeo must run and hide since he killed Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, in revenge for the cousin killing Romeo's best friend, Mercutio. Juliet's parents press her to marry the hapless Paris so she feigns committing suicide. And Romeo, ah if only he'd waited another few minutes.

It's a tale of love and joy and tragedy and along the way we meet other characters in Verona. We meet Mercutio, Romeo's best mate and great sword-fencer. We see the Montague (white tights) and Capulet (red tights) gangs sword-fencing in the marketplace and end up with a pile of dead bodies so that the Prince of Verona has to intervene to stop them. This is proper fencing too, fully choreographed of course, but it's very exciting to see all the lads slashing at each other and jumping and bouncing all over the place! Sadly Mercutio and Tybalt also fence later in the ballet and Mercutio is slain, stabbed in the back by Tybalt so Romeo takes swift revenge.

We also meet the Happy Strumpets - the cast list rather casually calls them 'Three Harlots' but I prefer my name for the three lasses. Lead strumpet was a surprise to me - Itziar Mendezibal! I've seen Itziar dance several times, always with so much grace and poise and she was fabulous as Paulina in 'The Winters' Tale' a couple of years ago so it was lovely to see her in a more knock-about role teasing Romeo and the others with her undoubted charms. Romeo is no longer interested after he's met Juliet but I'm pleased he knew the Strumpets.

There is a gorgeous range of dancing in this ballet, from the energetic sword fencing scenes to the joyous pas de deux of the love scenes and our leads did themselves proud. Akane was great as Juliet, so elegant and graceful, moving from being the child at the start of the ballet to the poised young women of later scenes. Ryoichi also did great dancing, spurring on his comrades in trouble-making and worshipping Juliet. But, for me, Steven and Iana remain the definitive lovers - Akane didn't quite capture the child at the start and Ryoichi didn't have the same level of characterisation as Steven (but, to be fair, he didn't have the same time to practice the role). I also really liked James Hay as a very bouncy Mercutio and Bennet Gartside as Tybalt. It's a masterful ballet and a great production and odd to realise that this was MacMillan's first full length ballet - he was truly inspired when he choreographed it!

If you want to try out seeing a full ballet you could do a lot worse than choose this one. It's playing until June and will be broadcast live to cinemas on 11 June - try it? You never know, you might actually like it!

'Asphodel Meadows'/'The Two Pigeons' at the Royal Opera House

The current double-bill of ballets at the Royal Opera House is the one act 'Asphodel Meadows' and the two act 'The Two Pigeons', an interesting mix or an abstract and a narrative ballet. I like the double and triple bill programmes the Royal Ballet performs since they're a great opportunity to see different styles and dancers on the same evening. I've seen 'The Two Pigeons' before (with Steven McRae dancing the lead) but 'Asphodel Meadows' is a new one for me.

According to Wikipedia, Asphodel Meadows is the part of the ancient Greek underworld where ordinary go when they die. I've got no idea if that was in Liam Scarlett's mind when he choreographed the ballet but I suspect it might have been when, as the ballet opens, three dancers walked slowly backwards to the centre of the stage to begin the dancing. We see solo's, duos and groups dancing, ever changing and mixing up the pace, creating a strange vision in an abstract dance.

At one point, during a particularly jerky sequence, I was reminded of the 'Choreography' piece in 'White Christmas' while Danny Kaye sings about 'chaps who did taps aren't tapping anymore they're doing choreography'. But, you know what, I loved this short ballet in all it's weirdness and sometimes disjointed movements, it drew me in and made me wish it was longer than its 25 minutes. It was very elegant and I hope to see it again one evening.

'The Two Pigeons' is a more traditional ballet by Frederick Ashton with a straightforward story of young lovers. It opens in a Parisian artist's garret with a young artist painting his beloved who can't stop fidgeting. He's already feeling frustrated when his girlfriend's friends arrive so, when he sees a troupe of gypsies he invites them in as well and that's when he sees a beautiful gypsy girl. He's enchanted and leaves his girlfriend to run off to the gypsy camp to see his new girl. The girl's lover fights him (in dance form, of course) and he loses and is kicked out of the encampment. While walking home a pigeon lands in his arms and he takes it home with him. He makes up with his girlfriend and then a second pigeon flies into the garret as a lovebird. The end. So, not the most complicated of plots but, as ever, it's the dancing that matters.

Lauren Cuthertson danced the girlfriend as a playful and elegant young woman, very precise as always. The dancing was very pretty and delicate but I think I preferred the passion of the gypsy girls' dances and leaps and almost aggressive approach to dancing. I can quite understand the artist running off to the gypsy camp to escape the borderline annoyances of his girlfriend.

Of course, the gypsy girl turns out to not be very nice at all, taunting and teasing him during the fight with her lover so it's a hard lesson for the young artist. He goes home with his tail between his legs while his soppy girlfriends mourns the loss of love only to regain it a couple of minutes later.

I liked the playfulness of some of the dancing and Lauren was great as ever but, you know what? I preferred 'Asphodel Meadows' with its abstract patterns and dancing that kept my attention at all times. Well done Royal Ballet people!

'Mayerling' at the Royal Opera House

I saw 'Mayerling' danced a couple of years ago by the Royal Ballet so I knew the broad outline of the ballet when I went to see the current production, but there are always sequences and details that you forget, and I'd forgotten a lot. I was there largely to see the return of Steven McRae to the stage with his Royal Ballet colleagues and a long time away with an injury. It was a delight to see him leap about, throw ballerinas around in exotic shapes and jump up to the rafters again. Especially so in this ballet which is really all about the leading man who is on stage for most of the ballet.

The ballet is based on the real tale of Crown Prince Rudolph of the House of Habsburg and his rather strange manias around death and guns. And sex, lots of sex. And getting his own way in everything. He's not a terribly attractive character but seemed to have been popular with the ladies at court and less popular with their husbands. He is forced into a loveless dynastic marriage and treats his wife appallingly, even taking her to his favourite bawdy house to meet his favourite strumpets. He's not a happy person and, despite treating everyone badly, still seems to be popular with some young women. one in particular who shares his morbid fascinations.

It all comes to a head when he shoots one of the courtiers on a family game shoot in the woods and his oddities can no longer be hidden. In the hunting lodge he's assigned to while the Emperor considers his fate he's visited my his latest young lover and they dance up a storm then he shoots up and grabs his pistol that's never far from his hand...

Phew. This an intense ballet, very dark and dangerous. It has a large cast, some exotic costumes and a lot going on around the stage, with sub-plots aplenty to build a rich and compelling tale of power and intrigue, psychological drama and uncontrolled lusts and passions. It's all in there.

Key to the whole thing, of course, is the choreography and dancing. This is one of Kenneth MacMillan's great ballets and deservedly gets revived regularly. It's a star vehicle for the lead male dancer and Steven McRae is certainly one of the Royal Ballet's finest. He's been a Principal since 2009 and knows his stuff, bringing characterisation to every role - it's about acting as well as dancing and there's some spectacular dancing in this ballet. Steven was accompanied by Akane Takada as his lover and together they pulled some amazingly athletic feats of dance, sometimes getting close to gymnastics. I had the pleasure of seeing Akane dance the Swan in 'Swan Lake' early in the summer and it was delightful to see her grace and athleticism again.

It's a very intense ballet and the long applause at the end as the dancers took their bows and the ballerinas received flowers helped to come down from the tense peak. It was a treat to see Steven on stage, alone, to take the first bow which he so richly deserved. Welcome back!

'Romeo and Juliet' at the Boston Opera House

I have history with the 'Romeo and Juliet' ballet. It was the first full-length ballet that I'd ever seen and it's the one that made me fall in love with the art form. I saw the Macmillan version danced by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House - Steven McRae was Romeo and Iana Salenko was Juliet and they'll be the benchmark for every performance I see. So when I saw that the Boston Ballet was dancing the John Cranko version during my trip to Boston I had to get a ticket. And I'm so pleased that I did. The story is the same but the telling is different.

The Boston Opera House is rather unimpressive from the outside, with a narrow entrance corridor to get into the theatre proper. Then the glass and the gold and the lights start gleaming and you realise you're somewhere posh. I went upstairs to the balcony to find the Mezzanine seating and the very friendly ushers showed me to my seat with a perfect view of the very wide stage, perfect for leaping and jumping.

The lights dimmed and the curtain rose as the gorgeous score started and there was an empty stage with the marketplace scenery in place but where was the market? This was the first of the changes I noticed between the Macmillan and the Cranko versions of the ballet. In Cranko, the market is gradually populated rather than being ready and working when we join it. There are lots of little changes in the telling of the story but I was pleased that the three Happy Strumpets were still central to the market scenes (including throwing fruit in defence of Romeo).

Romeo loves a lady but dallies with the Happy Strumpets when we're introduced to the rivalry between the noble houses of Capulet and Montague. Our hero defies convention with his chums by going to the rival house's ball where he sees Juliet for the first time and is entranced by her. They fall in love. But Juliet's brother isn't happy and seeks a fight with Romeo and challenges him to a duel which he declines since he can't possibly fight his future brother-in-law. Mercutio saves their honour by taking up the glove but is sadly killed so Romeo must seek revenge and kills Tybalt. Disaster. The lovers marry in secret and spend one night together and dance their love. The next day Juliet just marry the man chosen for her but she gets a potion from her priest that will render her dead for a time but Romeo finds her dead and kills himself. Juliet comes to and sees her lover dead and commits suicide herself.

The dancing was excellent, the costumes and ensemble moments were great and it was fun watching out for the Cranko moments. One of the things I noticed early on was a dance move by the men where they held their knees together and moved their feet rather than their bodies - clearly one of his signature moves since it cropped up a few times. The ensemble moves were good too, with all those dancers moving in unison in their astonishing costumes.

Paulo Arrais was our Romeo and Misa Kuranaga was our Juliet and both gave top notch performances. I particularly liked the 'one of the lads' moments when lord Romeo joshed with his mates - that was really effective. I'd also single out Derek Dunn as Mercutio who brought his personality and acting to the role as well as some astonishing dancing. He ought to look to the Royal Ballet for his next career move.

I really enjoyed this production with excellent staging, costumes and, of course, dancing. While I'm delighted to have seen this production I think the Macmillan version is better and Steven and Iana remain my Romeo and Juliet.

'Jewels' at the Royal Opera House

A couple of weeks ago we went to see the 32nd performance of 'Jewels' by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House. Choreography is by George Balanchine based around the jewels of emeralds, rubies and diamonds. It was also broadcast live to cinemas a few days later.  I like the triple bills the Royal Opera House puts on, where you can see three very different - or similar - ballets in one programme. In 'Jewels', rubies for passion won hands down for me.

First up was 'Emeralds' in which the ballerinas wore green bodices and the lads didn't. Why didn't the male dancers wear green doublets? That's something that bothered me throughout the whole sequence of dances. And it shouldn't have. It was distracting. It was all very stately and pretty but wasn't very exciting. It almost felt like going through the motions - slowly. I want fire and ice, I want passion, and that's what was missing from this ballet. I suspect part of the reason was the music by Gabriel Faure which was very poised and measured and lacking any real dynamism. However, there was lots of tippy work so that was a good thing.

Next was 'Rubies', a far more dynamic ballet that never stopped or slowed down. This had music by Stravinsky so was very dramatic and encouraged dramatic and speedy dance moves. This was gorgeous and gives the show it's poster with Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb pulling some signature moves. Both were excellent in this short ballet, never silent and never still, ramping up the movement and passion as the ballet progressed. The really impressive thing is that it didn't look practiced and pristine, it looked like it was natural to them, it's just what they do. And they do it so well. It's only a 20 minutes show and, given the energy on that stage, that's probably just as well to keep the dancers from flagging. I was exhausted at the end of it.

My favourite section was when Steven runs and leaps round the stage followed by the other lads and then he nods his head as if to say 'keep up lads' and then launches into a set of twirls round and round, faster and faster as he crosses the stage and into the wings at ridiculous speed. Wow, it was exhausting to watch and I hope there was a pile of mattresses in the wings for him to collapse into. That was really impressive and effortless from a dancer at the top of his game.

The final ballet was 'Diamonds' with the dancers dressed in white with lots of sparkly stuff on them.  It was a return to the stateliness of the first ballet but with more speed and far more dancers on stage, at one point there were 34 of them (I counted). This had a lot of energy going for it and I much preferred the ensemble dances to the more delicate solo dances. There's something about a stage of dancers all doing the same thing at the same time that is very watchable.

I think this is why I really enjoyed the final section with all 32 dancers of the Royal Ballet on stage with the two Principals all doing the same moves, synchronised perfectly with the music again and again, turn and stretch, move and leg left then leg right. It was almost mesmerising. The Principals here were Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares who led their company with great style and grace.

It's a great triple bill and it's great fun to see so  many different dancers doing their different thing to different styles of dance and music but my favourite has to be 'Rubies'. Steven and Sarah made a great partnership and Steven's big show off moves at the end embody all that is exciting in ballet. Go on you other Principals of the Royal Ballet, follow that!

'Woolf Works' at The Royal Opera House

Two weeks ago we went to see the thirteenth performance of 'Woolf Works' by Wayne McGregor and the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House. This is the first revival of the production that I first saw in 2015 (which was the sixth ever performance). Four days later we also went to see this production at the cinema as it was broadcast live and co-hosted by Darcy Bussell. Yes, it definitely is worth seeing a mere days later and it was a pleasant surprise to see so many close-ups on the big screen.

'Woolf Works' was the first production I saw at the Royal Opera House and my introduction to the Royal Ballet and holds a very special place for me. It also features Alessandra Ferri, who helped create the leading role with Wayne McGregor in 2015. Alessandra is one of those rare creatures, a Prima Ballerina Assoluta. And, of course, she trained with the Royal Ballet and danced with it in the 1980s. She has astonishing poise and skill and is a joy to watch.

'Woolf Works' is a series of three ballets based on three of Virginia Woolf's novels, in order, 'Mrs Dalloway', 'Orlando' and 'The Waves' and named 'I now, I then', 'Becomings' and 'Tuesday'. The programme opens with the voice of Virginia Woolf talking about the English language and words in the only recording of her voice with words projected on the screen and coalescing into her portrait as the curtain rises.

'I now, I then' opens with Alessandra Ferri standing still on the stage with three huge rectangles of wood slowly turning on the stage, sometimes in unison and sometimes at different speeds, and Clarrisa Dalloway is there amongst the sounds of London as the music starts. We see Clarissa as a middle aged woman and as a teenager with friends Peter and Sally, dancing their joys, and sometimes the older Clarrisa gets lost in her memories as she prepares for her party. We also get Septimus and Rezia, and even Evans who died in the trenches who does a dazzling solo as he spins round and round the stage at great speed, vanishing into the shadows at the back of the stage. Septimes's death is quite a shock as he falls from the window and the lights go out.

It's lovely to see the young Clarissa and Sally dance their joy, occasionally joined by the young Peter and, once, by the older Clarissa in memory. The music is perfect for this romantic and quite narrative dance and it was lovely, seeing it on the big screen, to see how they looked at each other as they danced. Sally in all her flighty blondness flitting around the stage, fearless and full of life, the love that Clarissa couldn't marry.

It really is a gorgeous ballet I want to see again.

'Becomings' is a different creature entirely but still telling the tale of Woolf and her worlds. Orlando was born male in the time of Elizabeth but wakes up one morning as female and immortal as she travels down the centuries. The book has been described as the longest love letter, from Virginia to Vita Sackville-West, and while there are some slow and tender moments in the ballet, I remember speed and movement, lasers and electronic music, shiny costumes flashing and lights darting as the maze of dancers spin around and leap and glide.

In several places the action takes place in the spotlight, with dancers leaping into the spotlight to take their turn and then leap out for others to take their place, constant movement, constant sharing of the stage and all impeccably done. And we had Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb dancing together in a world of their own.

One thing that stunned me was that at several points it seemed that everyone on stage was moving to their own dance, moving and twirling across the stage in different formations. How can they maintain such concentration that the movements of the dancers beside them don't affect their own dancing. This isn't just physically rigorous, but mentally rigorous too. This is why these are some of the best dancers in the world.

The stage had a covering of some shiny material during 'Becomings' to create a mirror image to most of the dancing and it was terribly effective - not the whole stage, simply the middle half so the reflections didn't outstay their welcome. And neither did the stabbing spotlights or the lasers that shot out around the auditorium (something we didn't see in the big screen version).

The final ballet was 'Tuesday', based on 'The Waves', with its backdrop of slow motion waves projected on the back of the stage and the constant movement of the dancers. This ballet was preceded by Gillian Anderson reading Virginia Woolf's suicide letter to her husband, Leonard, which got rapt attention in the auditorium. Once again, Alessandra took the lead role in this ballet, with Federico Bonelli and Sarah Lamb.

The constant movement, imitating waves on the seashore, keep the whole piece flowing and moving. Early on, the children from the Royal Ballet School joined their heroes on stage to play on the beach  with shrieks of laughter mixing with the seagulls as they played on the shore. And then the waves crashed again and the dancers appeared out of the shadows.

The repetition was mesmerising, almost transcendent as the dancers moved and created patterns on the stage, appearing and disappearing into the shadows at the back of the stage under the projection of the waves.  You know the tide has changed when the dancers started forming patterns based on waves as they sweep into the shore and then back again into the shadows , time and again as the tide goes out and fewer dancers grace the stage, then fewer still. And night falls.

'Tuesday' is a lovely, gentle ballet with some romantic movements and some narrative twists, that creates a marvellous experience, perfectly matched by the music and lighting on that simple and bare stage.

'Woolf Works' is a marvellous exercise in dance and marries together the music by Max Richter, the lighting and staging. It works as a whole with each element complementing the next. Most of the music is available on CD from Max Richter, 'Three Worlds' and I'm listening to it as I type.

I think 'Woolf Works' is included in the programme of ballets on the Royal Ballet's summer tour this year so see it if you possibly can. I will patiently await it's next revival and will be there to see it at the Royal Opera House. I wonder if Alessandra will take her role again in that revival? I do hope so.